STANFORD, Calif. (AP) - When Chelsea Clinton becomes the First Freshman at Stanford University next week, her proud and wistful parents will be watching. And so will reporters and photographers eager to document the start of her new life 3,000 miles away from home. Chelsea, accompanied by President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, will begin her Stanford career with five days of orientation starting Sept. 19th. She'll move into her dorm, meet her roommate and get to know the sprawling campus 30 miles south of San Francisco before classes start on Sept. 24th. The Clintons plan to let reporters follow them about campus on the first day of orientation with the idea that the press will get enough pictures and fodder for stories - and then leave Chelsea alone. "That's the hope," said Marsha Berry, Mrs. Clinton's press representative. And once she's settled in, Chelsea will not be hounded by the student newspaper, the Stanford Daily. Rather, she'll be treated as "a student, a regular student," not as a celebrity, says the paper's editor, Carolyn Sleeth. Chelsea, as the only child of the president, was long protected from the glare of the press but has recently become something of a public figure in her own right with increasing public appearances over the past year. The 17-year-old would-be doctor has received high marks for being intelligent, poised and personable. "I've found inspiration in the effortless grace that a girl half my age has brought to an intimidating challenge," Patti Davis, Ronald Reagan's daughter, wrote in Harper's Bazaar about Chelsea. "Whatever it is Chelsea does, she's the best person we've ever seen doing it," the Unofficial Chelsea Clinton Fan Club declares on its Web site. Thousands of people were interested enough in Chelsea to give her some tongue-in-cheek advice in a survey the Internet company Excite! recently ran on its Web site. "It's like the whole country gets to go to college with her - they get to live vicariously," said Joe Krauss, one of six Stanford grads who founded the company. Stanford, determined to guard Chelsea's privacy as it would that of any other student, isn't saying much about her life at the university. She'll be just one of its entering 1,660 freshman who ante up nearly $30,000 in tuition, room and board to study at the campus that sits at the foot of rolling, oak-studded hills. But celebrities who've attended other prestigious schools - after an initial flurry of publicity - have been able to enjoy relatively normal lives on campus. Amy Carter, like Chelsea, created a bit of a stir when she visited campuses before choosing Brown University. John F. Kennedy Jr. also attended Brown. Both were treated "just like any other private student," said university spokeswoman Tracie Sweeney. "Of course, it was a help that their fathers were not sitting presidents when they were in school. That took some of the pressure off," she said. Luci Baines Johnson was the last person to go directly from the White House to college when she decided to attend the University of Texas in 1966. It was her impending wedding, however, that generated more media interest. Brooke Shields' career at Princeton drew some undercover reporters - people with notebooks and cameras. The actress, her family and the university made it clear that while on campus she was no longer a celebrity but a student entitled to privacy. "I understand there were some number of paparazzi in the very early days who would try to stake out spots on campus," said Princeton spokesman Justin Harmon. "But once offending photographers were escorted off campus and word got out that we meant to enforce the ground rules ... by and large folks were quite cooperative," he said. Chelsea could find the same privacy at Stanford - except for times when Mom or Dad visit, attracting reporters again to campus, say Harmon and Sweeney. But fans of the first daughter have admired her ability to withstand such pressures so far. Peter Clipsham, president of the Unofficial Chelsea Clinton Fan Club, observed that it must be uncomfortable for her to have grown up in the public eye. "Still, she seemed to dance through it," the 19-year-old Ottawa, Canada resident said.